2 March - the first asparagus and roast lamb

After the success of my chilli wrap earlier in the week, I went for another wrap today, this time grilled harissa chicken (just a grilled chicken breast brushed with harissa paste) with avocado, grilled red pepper and mayo. I made the mistake of popping the wrap under the grill to warm, because it was already on, but it just went crispy- d'oh! Thus it didn't actually 'wrap' very well, but still a tasty filling nonetheless.

I went into Ruby & White to get some lamb fillet for supper and while I was there spotted the first English asparagus of the season, from the Wye Valley. It was extortionately expensive, but as we were celebrating (a new work contract), I decided to go for it anyway. It was well worth it too ... a simple plate of lightly boiled asparagus with a bit of melted butter to start with a glass of bubbly was about as perfect as it gets! I used a Nigel Slater recipe from the Kitchen Diaries for the lamb, marinating it in a gloop of fresh mint, garlic, anchovy and olive oil, quickly roasting it whole, then slicing it thickly. We had it with some rosemary roast new potatoes, green beans and the rest of the champagne ... great start to the weekend!

4 January - mushroom soup and kippercakes

More shiitake mushrooms had sprouted and were growing almost by the minute, so lunch was a simple mushroom noodle soup. Annoyingly, I burnt my tongue with my first slurp, so I'm not really sure if it tasted good or not!

Completely out of ideas for supper, I turned to the Kitchen Diaries, starting off with today's date and browsing back and forth. I came across what were described as "kipper patties", but somehow became known as "kippercakes" in the cooking! Really they were just pretty straightforward fishcakes made with kippers, potato and a bit of dill. The recipe suggested serving them with dill mayonnaise, but I had some creme fraiche in the fridge, so used that instead with some dill and a crushed clove of garlic. They were a bit soggy and went a bit squishy in the frying, but the smoky kippercakes with the fresh, cooling creme fraiche were a great combination, along with a pile of steamed leeks, beans and carrots.

28 December - potato salad and aubergine curry

I tried out another recipe from my new cookbook for lunch - well, more of an idea than a recipe really, just a bit of a twist on a potato salad. You roughly chop a boiled egg into a simple dressing of oil, vinegar and mustard and slightly mash it in so that the yolk mixes a bit with the dressing. Then you add cold, boiled potatoes and cherry tomatoes. The slightly thickened yellowy dressing coated the potatoes and made it a nice simple lunch with a bit of mozzarella on the side.

We had another one-pot veg dish for supper, this time an aubergine Thai curry from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, with aubergine, mushrooms and tomatoes in a spicy coconut sauce. It's a recipe I've done before with several variations and always comes out tasty - you can't beat aubergine for soaking up lots of lovely spices!

21 July - scallops with minty peas and apricots with pistachios

I've just realised that I'm a whole week behind with this blog, so I thought I'd better sit down and have a catch-up! So, a week ago today ... Tris was out for the evening, so I bought myself a handful of scallops from the fish man, them pan-fried with a bit of pancetta and ate them on a pile of crushed minty peas ... you can't beat a classic combination!

I'm not generally a big fruit fan, but I'd seen some apricots the other day and I was drawn to pop them in my basket more by the lovely colour than anything else. This evening, I got round to cooking them up for pudding. I cut them in half and baked them, covered in foil, with a spoonful of sugar and a splash of orange blossom water. Then I had them with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a few chopped pistachios scattered over the top. It was an idea borrowed from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and proved really delicious.

21 June - Herman, parsley and harissa chicken

Today's been a bit of a marathon cooking day. A couple of weeks ago, we were given 'Herman' by a friend ... Let me explain. He arrived as a rather unpromising pot of brown, yeasty-smelling gunk together with some instructions. Over the course of about 10 days, we had to stir him as he gradually expanded, then at various points, we had to feed him. This involved stirring in quantities of milk, flour and sugar. Finally by today, he had expanded to fill a large mixing bowl and it was time to divide him up. The idea is to divide the mix into 5 and give four of the new little Herman's away to friends to start the whole process over again. You then use the fifth pot of mixture to make a cake by adding more ingredients (more flour, sugar, eggs, oil, flavourings, nuts and apple).

I've never been particularly good at baking and don't really own proper cake tins, so I poured the resulting mix into a loaf tin and popped it in the oven. After an hour (as per the instructions), it was still distinctly sticky in the middle so I left it a bit longer. When it finally came out, it was a probably a bit crunchier round the edges than it should've been. It didn't look wildly promising, but actually a slice with a cup of tea wasn't too bad. No idea who we're going to pass the remaining 'Hermans' onto though!

Next I cooked up some bulgar wheat. Along with the spinach, the parsley on the terrace is getting a bit out of control and the most obvious use for it was some tabbouleh. I'm not actually a big fan of too much parsley myself, but Tris loves it, so I made him up a big bowl to take to work for his lunch. I then had a bit of the plain bulgar wheat with some salad and the leftover, cold lamb for my lunch.
By the time it got to thinking about dinner, I was a bit out of culinary inspiration, so I turned to my usual favourite, Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. For 21st June, he has a recipe for harissa chicken, which quite appealed, so I went with it. You mix up some yoghurt with harissa paste and a bit of olive oil, then use it to coat some chicken thigh fillets. Then you simply grill them and sprinkle over some mint. Very simple, but it came out great with a big pile of green veg (peas, broad beans and asparagus).

19 June - braised lamb shanks and gooseberry & apple crumble

I went to the supermarket yesterday with a rather vague "meat" written on my shopping list for today's dinner and I came home with a couple of lamb shanks. I knew I wanted to slow cook them, so I turned to Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and found a recipe for braised lamb shanks with mustard. I browned the meat gently on the hob in a little oil, then added a couple of sliced onions, 3 peeled and squashed cloves of garlic, 3 bays leaves, some rosemary, 250ml stock and 250ml red wine. When it all came to the boil, I covered the whole thing with foil and a lid and popped it in the oven at 150C for a couple of hours. Halfway through I turned the meat over and added a good dollop of wholegrain mustard. It came out lovely and tender and went nicely with some simple boiled potatoes, green beans and spring greens. There was rather a lot of meat, so I pulled a few bits off before I put it on the plates, to keep for lunch one day in the week.

To use up the rest of the gooseberries while they're nice and fresh, I mixed them with some apple to make a crumble. My usual crumble mix is, again, based on a Nigel Slater recipe. I whizz together 90g plain flour with 65g cold butter in a mixer, then add 3tbsp caster sugar, 3tbsp ground almonds and a few chopped hazelnuts. I put the gooseberries and apple (one big Bramley) in a dish, sprinkle over a tbsp sugar, then tip on the crumble mix and cook the whole thing for about half an hour. Even with custard, the gooseberries still had a nice, tangy kick!

food at forty-two

According to Douglas Adams, forty-two is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything. For me, it's food. So as I turn forty-two, I thought it might be an apt time to do something I've been thinking about for some time. Partly inspired by Nigel Slater's wonderful Kitchen Diaries, I'm going to keep a record of what I eat for the next twelve months.

Why? Well, partly out of curiosity just to see what I do eat and how often I end up cooking the same old things. Partly to try and inspire me to be more creative and not keep going back to those tried-and-tested favourites all the time. I also want to keep a record of recipes that turn out well (so I can use them again) and those that don't (so I can adjust them next time).

I'm planning to keep a notebook in the kitchen to jot stuff down as I go along and then I'm aiming to type it up (and add pictures) every few days. The blog is partly to provide a more easily searchable format, but also possibly to share with friends and family. I'm not quite sure how the blog'll develop, but at the moment, I envisage a mix of recipes, comments and the odd restaurant review too - because it's not just about what I cook myself, but the food in my life generally. Anyway, we'll see how it goes ...

Bon appetit!